Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1382552
31 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E B A Y A R E A 'I wanted a street that was quiet, neighbors that were quiet.' i n t h e B e d fo rd- St uyve - s a n t n e i g h b o r h o o d o f Brooklyn. C h a n c e y h a s o t h e r r e q u i r e m e n t s , t o o ; unsurprisingly, most are sound- and noise-related. "I wanted something far away from the subway because I didn't want any low-end rumble," she said. "I wanted a street that was quiet. I wanted neighbors that were quiet. And I managed to get all of those things." S i n c e m o v i n g i n to h e r n e w d i gs, Chancey has outf itted the basement and the ground level of her three-story brownstone with microphones and other equipment to allow for recording. Pits of sand and gravel are maintained in the basement, which is, naturally, also home to the wide range of objects, trinkets, toys, and tools that are the coin of the realm for any Foley artist: everything from oyster shells to 1950s-era telephone receivers can be used as props to help bring a project's sound world to life. "You have to use every square inch of space for Foley prop storage," Chancey said. C h a n cey — w h o s e re ce n t c re d i ts i n c l u d e t h e t r u e - l i f e d r a m a " I , T o n y a " a n d the series "Warrior" and "The Queen's Gambit" — a c k n o w l e d ge s t h a t h e r highly customized at-home setup may make for interesting conversations be- tween real-estate agents and prospective home-buyers should she ever decide to sell. "I've often thought about that," she said. "I've thought, 'How will they explain these pits in the basement?'" CineMontage recently went on a tour of Chancey's one-of-a-kind, at-home Foley studio and storage space. ■ "I've worked on a lot of series that have a lot of fight scenes, really well-choreographed martial arts combined with a lot of unique weapons. I've got some fencing swords. I've got locks and keys, and then some Asian swords that are not sharpened up at the top that are horizontal on the pegboard. Below that I've got things that work for handcuffs and armor that kind of give you the variety of jingle-jangles of guards and soldiers. Then I've got some weaponry to the right: baseball bats, sharpened swords, some sharpened knives." "Those are all of the shoes, except for the boots because the boots don't fit on those racks nicely. Over the years, I've just come up with a numbering sys- tem. My favorites are usually [marked] number 1. I'll have five or six different pairs of heels, five or six different pairs of men's dress shoes, five or six differ- ent sneakers. And that's where they all live — vertical space."